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Early Childhood Family Education

What is ECFE?

ECFE stands for Early Childhood Family Education. The Early Childhood Family Center is a Community Education program of the Bloomington public schools that provides classes, programs, and services for families with young children from birth to kindergarten age.

A typical ECFE class includes parent discussion facilitated by a parent educator while children play together in an early childhood classroom. Parents and children later join each other for fun learning activities. In other classes, parents and children spend the entire time playing and learning together, while a few are parent discussion only.

Most classes meet once a week for less than two hours. Quality educational childcare is provided on site, for a small fee, for siblings not enrolled in classes. Early Childhood Family Education classes operate on a sliding fee scale. No one is turned away for inability to pay.

The goals of Early Childhood Family Education include the following:

To support parents in their child raising efforts;

To offer information about child development and alternative parenting techniques;

To help parents and their children communicate better;

To give children opportunities to discover and learn;

To promote positive parental attitudes; and

To provide information on community resources available to parents and children.